
The third choice, running a company at scale in perpetuity, is harder to pull off. Basecamp has been proselytizing for the approach to startups for over a decade, urging founders to create companies that are more like Italian restaurants than internet monopolists. This summer saw a mini-wave of smaller startups, like Buffer and Wistia, buying out their early investors, essentially purchasing the freedom to go their own way. Often this class of startup is dismissed as “lifestyle businesses.” That’s a mistake.